Have You Ever Been An Extra?

[Carnie]

Yep, a few times. It's really boring, because film/TV shooting it a lot of "hurry up and wait" and huge camera angle changes.

I was in a "home planner" thing that was supposed to be an informercial that got scrapped. I got $300 a day and had to change my outfit like 25 times in 3 days to make it seem like the passage of time as we built our "dream home".

My "husband" was a turd.

Most recently, I went to the "final night" taping for an upcoming "Kitchen Nightmares". Gordon Ramsay was VERY nice and VERY cute.

Can't say any more than that right now, have to wait until the episode airs.

 

[BabyTigger99]

Not an extra, but I did have a small role in two movies. I was in Ed Gein: The Musical as a singer in the crazy house scene, and had a smaller role in the movie Single Action Colt. Both were done locally. Ed Gein has been playing around the midwest for about a year now.

 

[AboutTheMouse]

I was an extra in the Blues Brothers, which was filmed in my hometown. We ditched school, got to play on the beach, got paid and got a free dinner out with the cast. Jim Belushi was a riot!

You can still see my childhood self in a few spots if you look closely.

 

[Desiree]

I and about 200 others were in the crowd scenes of the football games in Everybody's All American. We kept having to get up and make our way to the next section around the stadium to make it look like it was packed!

Handbag Lady... I am supremely jealous about the Buffy episode! Too cool!

 

[castmemberb4]

Yep, a few times. It's really boring, because film/TV shooting it a lot of "hurry up and wait" and huge camera angle changes.

I was in a "home planner" thing that was supposed to be an informercial that got scrapped. I got $300 a day and had to change my outfit like 25 times in 3 days to make it seem like the passage of time as we built our "dream home".

My "husband" was a turd.

Most recently, I went to the "final night" taping for an upcoming "Kitchen Nightmares". Gordon Ramsay was VERY nice and VERY cute.

Can't say any more than that right now, have to wait until the episode airs.

A little OT, I know two people who work/worked for Gordon Ramsay as prep chefs they say he's nice too.

 

[SydSim]

Started off doing background work on films like Malcolm X, as well as local commercials. Worked my way up to principal work on some tv shows and a few national commercials, as well as one film.

I still act for tv occasionally (just had an audition yesterday )

DH has done much more - hosted a show for a few years, many principal roles in shows, nationals commercials and films.

DD did a few things when she was very young. Now that she's 14, she does theater and wants to branch out into tv again.

Background work can definitely be grueling, and if you're not union, downright criminal On Malcolm X, I was a dancer in the Lindy Hop scene. Worked 16 hours a day for three days in a row. Was paid $45 per day (does that really come out to less than $3/hour?), when we weren't on set, our holding area lacked comfortable seating (we had hard benches in a cold, drafty old building) and meals were on us. No overtime and you'd better look just as energetic dancing during hour 16 as you did during hour 2!

Now that we're union, we get proper breaks throughout the day, overtime for hours worked beyond 8 hours, and meals are provided. It certainly gives an incentive for the production company to not linger around more than necessary - nothing like having to pay 200 union extras overtime to get things moving sometimes

Having said all that, I still love the business!

 

[BellvilleDad]

I was an extra in the Blues Brothers, which was filmed in my hometown. We ditched school, got to play on the beach, got paid and got a free dinner out with the cast. Jim Belushi was a riot!

You can still see my childhood self in a few spots if you look closely.

Now that's cool!

 

[BuzzBiteyear]

No, but I wish I had looking back. They had an open call for extras for the movie "Rudy". I lived just about a 1/2 hour or so from the Notre Dame campus and knew a few of the extras. I was in high school at the time and am a Purdue fan, so that sort of made me not want to be in it.

 

[agnes!]

Started off doing background work on films like Malcolm X, as well as local commercials. Worked my way up to principal work on some tv shows and a few national commercials, as well as one film.

I still act for tv occasionally (just had an audition yesterday )

DH has done much more - hosted a show for a few years, many principal roles in shows, nationals commercials and films.

DD did a few things when she was very young. Now that she's 14, she does theater and wants to branch out into tv again.

Background work can definitely be grueling, and if you're not union, downright criminal On Malcolm X, I was a dancer in the Lindy Hop scene. Worked 16 hours a day for three days in a row. Was paid $45 per day (does that really come out to less than $3/hour?), when we weren't on set, our holding area lacked comfortable seating (we had hard benches in a cold, drafty old building) and meals were on us. No overtime and you'd better look just as energetic dancing during hour 16 as you did during hour 2!

Now that we're union, we get proper breaks throughout the day, overtime for hours worked beyond 8 hours, and meals are provided. It certainly gives an incentive for the production company to not linger around more than necessary - nothing like having to pay 200 union extras overtime to get things moving sometimes

Having said all that, I still love the business!

And then there are sometimes meal penalties...

agnes!

 

[SnowWhite607]

I and about 200 others were in the crowd scenes of the football games in Everybody's All American. We kept having to get up and make our way to the next section around the stadium to make it look like it was packed!

Handbag Lady... I am supremely jealous about the Buffy episode! Too cool!

I worked with a girl in Baton Rouge who was in that. She was in the wedding scene and all you saw was the back of her head, LOL! But she got to meet John Goodman and said he was very nice.

 

[arminnie]

No but I've been a soap opera character. I wasn't in the soap, but my persona was. A friend called me up and said you have to watch this that is YOU. It was a character who looked like me, had the same first name and had an MBA from Stanford. At that time (25 or so years ago) there were not 200 women who had ever received an MBA from Stanford.

Then I saw the credits and one of the writers was someone I'd gone to undergrad with. It was so weird!!! I never confronted her about it nor did I really follow what happened to "my"character.

 

[Feralpeg]

I've been an extra for several WDW B-rolls. I was in the Top Things to do at WDW thing that used to be on WDW resort TV. It isn't the one showing now. I was shown getting into a Doombuggy at the Haunted Mansion.

I was in an ESPN commercial starring Roger Clemens. It was done at RNR at DHS.

DD and I were extras on a Telemundo show filmed at MK.

DD was an extra in the movie Never Fight Back. DD was a featured performer in a television series for kids called Retro News.

There is a company in the Orlando area that calls people when the need extras. We are on their list.

 

[DisGirlAllie]

Not me, but my aunt was an extra on the very first episode of Degrassi High.